Things To Do in DC This Weekend (April 6-9): Emancipation Day Festivities, A Drive-In Movie, and Portraits of Post-9/11 Soldiers

The exhibit "The Face of Battle: Americans At War, 9/11 to Now" runs at the National Portrait Gallery Friday through January 2018. This photograph, by Stacy Pearsall, courtesy National Portrait Gallery.

THURSDAY, APRIL 6

FOOD & DRINKWashington City Paper is hosting its fifth annual Best of D.C. Celebration at the Carnegie Library. It features dishes and beverages from more than 50 of the area’s best restaurants, mixologists, and breweries, such as Farmers & Distillers, Buredo, Jack Rose, and Vinoteca. $70, 7 PM.

MUSIC The annual hardcore music festival Damaged City Fest starts Thursday and runs through Sunday night. The schedule involves main shows at St. Stephen’s in Columbia Heights on Friday and Saturday nights, with The Pinch hosting the pre-fest show on Thursday as well as after-shows all weekend. Plus, on Saturday afternoon is an art show hosted in a box truck outside St. Stephen’s, featuring art and photographs. $10 to $60, times vary.

FRIDAY, APRIL 7

MUSEUMS The exhibit The Face of Battle: Americans at War, 9/11 to Now opens at the National Portrait Gallery on Friday and runs through January 28, 2018. The exhibit explores the human costs of ongoing wars through portraiture of ordinary soldiers, including photographs (by Ashley Gilbertson, Tim Hetherington, Louie Palu, and Stacy Pearsall), site-specific installation of drawings (by Emily Prince), and paintings, sculpture, and time-based media (by Vincent Valdez). Free, 11:30 AM.

BEER PONG The Town Tavern is hosting a beer pong tournament to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Teams of two can compete for prizes (including gift cards to the Town Tavern and tickets to a DC United game), with all proceeds going to the LLS. $25 per person to enter ($50 per team, with registration requested), 6:30 PM.

FILM Union Market is kicking off its monthly drive-in movie series this Friday with a screening of The Royal Tenenbaums. The drive-ins, which run from April through November, are held in the parking lot (1305 5th Street NE) and projected onto the market’s wall; the DC Rollergirls will deliver snacks and drinks on wheels. $10 per car (free for walk-up viewers in the picnic area), Lot closes at 7:30 PM; film starts at 8 PM.

DISCUSSIONWaves For Water is a new Red Bull TV documentary that tells the story of former pro surfer Jon Rose and his mission to bring clean drinking water to everyone in the world. It’ll be screened on Friday at the Doyle Forman Theater at American University along with a panel discussion led by Darryl Perkins (Director of Impact at Broccoli City) and featuring Rose, Niraj Ray (Founder, Cultivate the City), Chris Bradshaw (Dreaming Out Loud, Inc.), Ebony Costain (Founder, Ujamaa Box), and Julie Kirkwood (Founder, DC Urbangreens, Inc.). Free (with RSVP), 7 PM.

SATURDAY, APRIL 8

EMANCIPATION DAY Months before the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln signed the DC Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862, freeing over 3,100 slaves in the District. And so, every April 16 the city commemorates Emancipation Day; this year’s festivities will be held on Saturday with a parade (1 PM), a concert at Freedom Plaza (3 PM), and fireworks (9 PM). Performers at the concert include Grammy-nominated DC native Johnny Gill, hip-hop artist MC Lyte, and more. Free (with registration).

MUSEUMS Three paintings by mysterious Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro are reunited at the Freer/Sackler in the exhibit Inventing Utamaro: A Japanese Masterpiece Rediscovered, on display Saturday through July 9. Utamaro’s painting Snow at Fukagawa had been missing for nearly seventy years before it resurfaced in 2014 at the Okada Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan—it’ll be on display alongside two companion pieces, Moon at Shinagawa and Cherry Blossoms at Yoshiwara. Free, 10 AM.

MUSIC The Cornell University Chorus and its a cappella subset After Eight are performing at St. Paul’s on K Street as part of their spring tour. The program for this all-female choir will feature both classical and contemporary choral music, including this year’s commission from the chorus’s No Flowers, No Whining project, which aims to expand the repertoire for women’s choirs with nontraditional pieces from female composers. $20, 7:30 PM.

SUNDAY, APRIL 9

MUSEUMS The exhibit Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism opens at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday and runs through July 9. It features 75 works that put Bazille’s work in the context of the greater impressionistic movement, including paintings by such contemporaries as Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir. The Gallery’s collection houses the largest group of Bazille’s works outside of France, and this is the first major American exhibition on the artist in almost 25 years. Free, 11 AM.

WINE RdV Vineyards in Delaplane, Virginia is launching a “Celebrate Virginia” wine tasting event that will run every Sunday throughout the summer. The seated tasting will offer four different Virginia wines on a rotating and varying schedule, paired with some of the state’s best cheeses and charcuterie. $40, noon and 2 PM (advanced reservations required).

FESTIVAL The third annual Anacostia River Festival takes place Sunday afternoon at Anacostia Park. Celebrate the Anacostia River with canoe rides, experience Southeast DC’s local arts scene, or participate in bike safety classes and quick tune-ups. Free, 1-5 PM.